David Lammy has announced a major expansion of “tough love” problem-solving courts designed to steer women away from a life of crime. The Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary is unveiling plans to double the number of Intensive Supervision Courts (ISC) to reduce reoffending and improve family relationships.
ISCs require offenders to attend weekly sessions and regularly appear before the same judge, who monitors their behaviour. Failure to attend meetings can lead to prison. Currently, there are five ISCs across the country, but a £9 million funding boost will increase this to 11 by 2029, with six dedicated to women.
In an interview with The Mirror, Mr Lammy said the ISCs are not easier than prison sentences but represent a form of “punishment that works.” He stated: “There's nothing easy about being gripped by a judge, having to meet the obligations to attend alcohol or drug addiction supervision, knowing that if you slip up, you are going to go to prison and you could serve 28 days, for example, in prison… This is not easy. It's actually quite tough. Some might call it tough love.”
Studies show that more than two-thirds of women in custody report being victims of domestic abuse, while roughly half have drug addictions. Mr Lammy acknowledged that prison remains appropriate for some women, such as those who commit sexual or violent crimes, but stressed that many female offenders are victims of domestic abuse or struggle with mental health, drug, or alcohol problems.
When asked if people should show more sympathy for the reasons behind criminal behaviour, Mr Lammy responded: “I think that what the public want to see, understandably, if you've committed a crime, is punishment, but they also want to see rehabilitation, and so I tend to talk about punishment that works, and the emphasis on works is important. It really isn't good for taxpayers' money or good for victims of crime if people experience the criminal justice system and then go on to reoffend and reoffending rates are running at about 67% often in this area, so we need to get that figure down. The intensive supervision courts are a key plank of reducing reoffending that is cost-effective.”
ISCs are inspired by Texas’s justice system, where the approach has contributed to a 29% drop in crime. Keeley Knowles, 43, a former heroin addict who stole £35 million worth of designer products and other items over decades of prolific shoplifting, exemplifies how the targeted ISC system can work. Keeley, who was considered “beyond help,” went to jail 28 times in the UK, but it did not break her cycle of crime and drug use.
“Going to prison puts you on pause and then you come back out the exact same,” she said. “Every single time I got out of jail, I would hit their local shopping centre on the way home, already planning what I was getting, what I was going to sell.” After a two-year ISC order in Birmingham, which ended in March, her life has completely transformed, and she now campaigns on justice issues. “This is different because it wasn't just turning up at probation once a week, and someone ticking a box to say that you turned up, but not paying any interest in what you're actually doing… The ISC looks at all the things that you need help with and it will make sure that you get them and you don't get forgotten at the bottom of a pile of names. It's all personalised and it's not got one formula for one per for like everybody, everybody gets their own treatment right.”
“I used to be some junkie that you'd see in the street, no teeth, no nothing, that nobody paid attention to,” she added. “Now I go everywhere. I go to Westminster to talk; to the Old Bailey. I do events for massive security companies, police crime commissioners. I couldn't have imagined that my life would be what it is now, not back then.”
Vulnerable offenders are often supported through their ISC orders by women’s centres, which can host probation, substance misuse, and counselling sessions. Emma Page, who received an ISC order and completed it at Anawim women’s centre in Birmingham, said the targeted court helped her turn her life around. “I don't even know where I'd be. I probably would be in prison or dead,” she said. “It’s made me realise I am worth a bit, I'm not judged, I'm not the only one.”
Emma, 46, who assaulted a police officer when drunk shortly after her father’s death, was required to complete a three-month alcohol programme and 12 weeks of counselling. She now wants to volunteer at the centre to help others like her. Calling for continued funding to support ISCs, she said: “I think the country needs it. I think the whole of Britain needs it because it will save the room and the money from the prisons and reoffending. Here, you have support, you're outside (of jail) and you can still be free and go forward and progress in your life. If you were in prison, it'd be, I don't know, aggression and whatever, you ain't gonna care, because as soon as you come out, you’re going to go back to where you were, and a lot of men and women do that.”
